Nova Scotia Invention Fixes Common Environmental Problem

ENVIRONMENT/LABOUR--Nova Scotia Invention Fixes Common Environmental Problem

A Nova Scotia invention will mean a healthier environment and lower costs for homeowners by helping to eliminate a common cause of failure in septic systems.

There are more than 100,000 domestic septic systems in Nova Scotia. Almost all of them use a network of pipes in a soil bed to disperse treated effluent (sewage or waste). If the dispersal pipes are not completely level, one side of the disposal bed can become overloaded and fail. The failure creates environmental and health risks and the repair is expensive.

Ken Burrows, a Wellington, N.S. environmental consultant, has come up with a solution -- a flow balancer.

The device forces the effluent flow into two equal streams. This ensures that the effluent is evenly distributed through the disposal bed. The balanced flow means that the work of filtering the effluent is spread evenly across the disposal bed.

Mr. Burrows took his idea to the environmental innovations branch at the Department of Environment and Labour. "The department put me in touch with Mysore Satish with Dalhousie University's faculty of engineering," said Mr. Burrows. "Together, we finalized and tested the design."

"The concept is simple, but we needed experimental results to prove the concept and demonstrate its effectiveness to regulators," said Dr. Satish.

The National Research Council's Industrial Research Assistance Program provided funding for prototype development. "Environment and Labour helped make the connections with the university and the funding agencies to bring this invention to life," said Mr. Burrows.

Environment and Labour also provided financial support for the patent application and marketing. "Assisting environmental innovation is a core business of our department," said Environment and Labour Minister Kerry Morash. "We're always ready to help make smart ideas like this one become reality."

The developers have applied for a patent and are discussing manufacturing plans.

"This invention is the latest in a series of successes we've had working with the engineering faculty at Dalhousie," said Mr. Morash. "Their ability to apply science to real-world environmental management problems means we'll have more successes in the future."